In a semiconductor device-manufacturing process of forming a stacked structure of an integrated circuit on a surface of a semiconductor wafer, which is a substrate, (hereinafter, referred to as wafer), there is a single wafer type vacuum processing in which a single wafer is disposed within a vacuum-exhausted processing module (substrate processing chamber) and then a process gas is then supplied to perform deposition, etching or the like on the wafer. After a plurality of wafers to be processed are transferred to a factory in a state where the wafers are received in a substrate container such as a front open unified pod (FOUP), the wafers are taken out from the substrate container piece by piece and carried into a processing module to perform a predetermined process.
At this time, the inside of the factory to which the FOUP is transferred is in an atmospheric pressure state while the inside of the processing module is usually kept in a vacuum pressure state. Due to this, the transfer of the wafers between the FOUP and the processing chamber is performed via a load lock chamber capable of switching an internal pressure into the atmospheric pressure state and the vacuum pressure state.
However, when the wafers are transferred into the load lock chamber piece by piece and the switching between the atmospheric pressure state and the vacuum pressure state is performed, it is required to install a wafer transfer mechanism between the FOUP and the load lock chamber and between the load lock chamber and the processing module, respectively, resulting in enlargement of the entire configuration of a wafer processing system including the transfer mechanism or the load lock chamber and the processing module.
In this regard, for example, there is known a vacuum processing apparatus in which a wafer transfer mechanism is omitted between a substrate container and a load lock chamber by transferring the entire cassette holding the wafers into the load lock chamber using a bottom opening pod (BOP), which is served as the substrate container and allows a cassette with a plurality of wafers held therein to be taken out from the BOP by removing a cover at the bottom of the BOP.
However, since the FOUP, which has been generally used in a semiconductor factory, does not have a structure enabling a cassette to be taken out and a cover to be removed during carrying-in/out of wafers is installed in a side surface of the FOUP, the aforementioned technology cannot be employed as it is.
Further, there is known a probe apparatus configured to change an orientation of an FOUP between a cover opening/closing mechanism for opening and closing (attaching and detaching) a cover of the FOUP and a delivery hole of the substrates in a probe unit for testing the substrates from the FOUP with the cover removed therefrom by loading the FOUP carried into a housing on a mounting table rotatable about a vertical axis and rotating the mounting table.
However, the housing of the probe apparatus is not a load lock chamber, and it is difficult to achieve an efficient arrangement of the cover opening/closing mechanism and the delivery hole of wafers in consideration of the carrying-in/out of the FOUP between the outside and the load lock chamber, and the like.